


I raised you better than this...

by Balrog_Roike



Series: Breaking all the rules [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Again, Gen, Hashirama is probably crying along with them, It's Okay, Madara has revelations, Tobirama is an accidental BAMF!, Uchiha Izuna Lives, big time, he will learn to deal with it, somewhere in the corner the laws of the universe are crying because they just got destroyed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 04:02:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11592531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Balrog_Roike/pseuds/Balrog_Roike
Summary: In which:Izuna has simultaneously the worst and the best day of his life, despite being unconscious for most of it,Tobirama freaks out in the calmest way possible,Hashirama spends most of the story either crying or rejoycing in his room,Madara's whole world view gets utterly broken and he's surprisingly okay with itand Mito is probably 100% done with everything but far too polite to say it.





	I raised you better than this...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blackkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/gifts).



> Inspired by a quote by Anonymous over on blackkat's Tumblr:  
> “I thought I raised you better than this,” said Tobirama, frowning at the shambling form of his decomposing revenant with Hashirama crying in the background.
> 
> What if it went the other way around instead and worked even better than Tobirama predicted?
> 
> Not betaed and written in far too short a time at a far too early hour...  
> Title pending until I get a better idea. (Suggestions welcome.)

Madara hadn't been expecting any visitors.  
  
By now even his own clan - ungrateful little bastards, every single one of them - had taken to staying well away from the spacious mansion their clan head and his immediate family called their own. Too wary of his ever-shortening temper, too fearful of his poisonous words reminding them of the bloody past they were so quick to forget in the light of the comfortable life they had found in the newly founded village of Konoha.  
  
But Madara couldn't forget, leave alone forgive: His "immediate family" was non-existent after all and he was living in this overly-large mansion all alone. And it was the Senjus' fault.

Oh, he had tried to forget, he really had. But every laugh, every smile, every night he lay down in a soft bed, safe and secure in the knowledge that he would wake up alive in the morning, twisted an invisible knife in his heart. Because _this_ , everything Konoha stood for, was everything he had ever wanted for Izuna – for all his brothers, really – and yet even the last brother he had managed to keep alive over all these grueling long years of war had been killed just short of finally seeing and living in Madara's oldest dream.

And his murderer, this pale, ice-cold _thing_ daring to call itself a human being, was still alive and at large, wandering around the village, whispering into Hashirama's ear and watching the Uchiha with all the predatory intent of a hunting snake. Waiting for just the right opportunity to get rid of them, once and for all.

And everybody, Madara's foolish clansmen included, willfully remained oblivious to the monster in their midst – and treated Madara like the pariah that Senju-bastard should rightfully be.

So no, Madara hadn't expected any visitors.  
  
And when he opened the door and saw the ghostlike face of the curse of his very existence, the teeny-tiny spark of anticipation of human contact and actual conversation in his chest, died a sudden fiery death. For a moment Madara felt nothing but rage, white-hot and all-consuming, and he had to fight hard to keep his Sharingan inactive.

Then he noticed the familiar hat on the other man's head and everything turned suddenly cold.  
For a moment he couldn't breathe, couldn't feel, couldn't even fully comprehend just what he was seeing. Then the sweet second of mercy ended and betrayal slammed into Madara like a freight-train. Betrayal and _hate_.

Screw killing Senju Tobirama whenever the opportunity presented itself and make it look like an accident.

All of Konoha would _burn_ , his traitorous relations included, and he would dance on their ashes in Izuna's honor.

Rage had always been one of Madara's worst enemies in the past, robbing him of caution and reason in equal measure. Now he discovered that hate, true, ice-cold _hate_ , made him patient instead. Calculating. Level-headed even in a way he rarely was.

So he leaned against the door-jamb, folded his arms and managed to somehow drag a sickly smirk onto his face.

"So, this is it, huh? You've finally done it and now you're here to tell me to take a hike."

If the man in front of him felt in any way insulted by Madara's disrespect towards his newly instated Hokage, he gave no sign of it. But then again, this particular Senju had always treated social niceties and conventions as something that mattered only to other people.

Only another sign of his heritage as a demon-spawn, for sure.

"No."

True to form, the pale devil's answer was short, to the point and not giving anything more than the barest information.

"Then why are you here?"

Because for all this man's many vices, gloating had never been one of them. Maybe he wanted to humiliate Madara by making him swear fealty or something? Putting him in his place right away as his first act as Hokage? Unlikely, given that they both knew that Madara would swear any oath demanded of him without any hesitation only to gleefully break every single one of them if it meant putting Senju Tobirama finally into the ground.

In fact the only person in the whole village who would actually believe in Madara's trustworthiness under these circumstances was probably Hashirama...

But instead of an answer all he got was a barely noticeable furrowing of the other man’s brows, followed by the slightest pursing of his lips.

How strange.  
If he didn't know any better he would almost think that the devil-in-disguise in front of him had no idea what to say. Which would be a first, because _naturally_ the bastard had _opinions_ about _everything_ , whether it was actually his business or not, and felt an almost pathological need to share them, whether you wanted to hear them or not. And then get involved in some way.

The only bright spot was that he did it to everybody and that therefore Madara wasn't the only clan head routinely ready to strangle him. Unfortunately the rest of them were too terrified of the bastard's reputation to team up and actually do the deed.

Anyway, the silence had been stretching for far too long by now and for once in his miserable existence even Senju Tobirama seemed to be aware that things were slowly getting awkward. Which was another first, because that guy simply didn't _get_ the concept of "awkward".

Madara felt his eyebrows rise and a slight hint of worry – if not even outright _fear –_ joined the hate swirling in his gut.

"Out with it!"

Another purse of pale lips – Dear kami, that guy was just using up all of his yearly emoting capability on this evening alone. – then he – _carefully_ – said "There has been an accident."

Black eyebrows climbed to an equally dark hairline.

"So?"

Another pause, then red eyes flicked to the side for just a second.

Sweet kami, Senju Tobirama, boogeyman of the ninja-world, bane of Uchiha Madara's existence, murderer of Uchiha Izuna was actually _uncomfortable!_

Stunned Madara watched as man in front of him visibly – _Visibly! –_ braced himself, then looked straight into Madara's eyes.

"You are aware of my Edo Tensei?"

Madara nodded.  
There had been _rants!_ Many, many r _ants!_  
And tears and snot and wailing and he had halfway feared that Hashirama would never stop again.  
  
For one short, glorious moment he had even almost believed that his friend might actually be ready to do something about the monster running around in the masquerade of a living, feeling being. Sadly said moment was short-lived and the rest of the time he had spent outwardly trying to get rid of Hashirama and inwardly flailing and gibbering and thanking every higher being that would listen that Senju Tobirama hadn't invented this travesty of everything that was holy while the Senju and the Uchiha had still been at war.

"I've been conducting experiments to improve certain aspects of the jutsu –"  
  
Because _naturally_ this fucking _nightmare_ of a jutsu absolutely _needed_ to be made even _worse._    
  
Honestly, Madara should simply kill the fucking monster in front of him, no matter what Hashirama would say about it or his sweet, sweet revenge on the entirety of Konoha, and do the whole world a huge favor.  
  
_“ –_ but instead of the expected results, I ended up with an outcome I had given up on a long time ago."

In spite of many voices snidely declaring otherwise, Madara was far from stupid. Rash, yes, prone to jumping into things without thinking about it first, yes, but outright stupid? No.  
And right here, right now, with the cold fire of hate keeping his thoughts clear and sharp like knifes, he considered and discarded several "outcomes" Senju Tobirama could have once hoped for when first considering his newest jutsu – one nastier than the other – and ended up with the one reason _he,_ _Madara,_ would have ever thought of trying something like this.

Even his hate wasn't strong enough to survive against the sudden bout of shock suffusing his entire being.

"You actually resurrected somebody. Brought them back to life. Properly."

It was barely more than a breathless whisper, halfway caught between awe and trepidation.

Another barely there hesitation – and by this point Senju Tobirama would probably never emote again after this night – then a nod.

"Yes."

And then, like ripping off a band-aid:

"I resurrected your brother."

Only pale, quickly gripping hands kept Madara from an abrupt acquaintance with the floor.  
Strange, he would have thought for sure that the Senju would have let him fall. It was what Madara would have done after all – along with making sure that Tobirama stayed down once and for all.

"Izuna?"

He barely recognized his own voice against the sudden rush in his ears. Then again the problem might also be his voice's rather breathy quality given that Madara had serious problems sucking enough air into his lungs right now.

"How?"

The blurry and – dare he say it – actually slightly concerned looking face in front of him lifted one eyebrow in silent judgment, simultaneously conveying a sense of "Really, that's what you consider important now?" and "Do you really think that you would understand a single word of whatever explanation I would be willing to give you?" and Madara immediately changed his question into "Why?"

"Pure chance, actually. Every Edo Tensei needs a certain amount of DNA of the person I intend to resurrect. Given that grave robbery is frowned upon, I have to work with what I have. And after years of almost exclusively fighting your brother, I have more traces of his dried blood on various things than I ever wanted to have."

Senju Tobirama was such a fucking  _creep!_

A part of Madara wanted to strangle him then and there because how long had the psycho been using Izuna as his personal little puppet whenever he felt like tweaking his jutsu a little bit further. The other part of him was very aware that the man still holding him up had just brought his beloved little brother back to life and was therefore absolved of quite a few past crimes and current personality flaws.

"If it helps, I _am_ sorry."

Madara, slowly beginning to feel like himself again, even if everything was still kind of floaty and not quite real, snorted.

"About using Izuna as your test subject or that you got caught?"

Well, perhaps Tobirama wasn't quite as absolved of all flaws in Madara's eyes yet as Madara had initially thought. On the other hand, the Senju hesitated quite a bit before admitting:

"The latter, definitely. The first... maybe? The outcome was very positive after all."

"So not the point..."

Any other day Madara would have a headache at this point. This and an almost uncontrollable urge to kill the other man as painfully as possible. Right now he just wanted to see his brother and convince himself of the fact that he was truly alive again. He shook Tobirama's hands off and straightened

"Where is he?"

The white-haired man eyed him critically, then nodded in the direction of the village proper.

"In my brother's house. Izuna was... uncooperative, so I had to knock him out. Mito is looking after him right now."

Madara almost barked out a laugh because "uncooperative" was probably too light a word for however Izuna would have reacted to suddenly being alive again and being face to face with his murderer. A far larger part of him was quite disgruntled though that the Senju had told _Hashirama_ before telling _him_. Izuna was Madara's brother after all and an Uchiha, so as his immediate family and as his clan head Madara should have been the first informed and not that soppy fool who was probably already planning an even brighter future for their village now.

With a huff he took a step forward – and would have promptly face-planted if not for his companion's quick reaction. Apparently his mind was willing to get on his way to Izuna, but his body – and especially his wobbly knees – were still too weakened by the shock. Fortunately, before he even had time to get angry, Tobirama slung the other man's arm around his own shoulders, almost knocking the Hokage hat from the shaggy white hair, and started them in the right direction.

Madara couldn't help but side-eye him.

Not what he would have expected, but then again, Tobirama's behavior had been off the whole evening, hadn't it? For a moment the Uchiha entertained the notion that this whole scenario was nothing but a really elaborate trap and he had walked right into it – but it wasn't Tobirama's style and a quick, subtle check with his Sharingan revealed neither a genjutsu nor anything else out of the ordinary.

Then another thought hit him and he was a fool for not considering it before: Uncharacteristic shows of emotion, hesitance and trouble finding the right words, utter honesty when lies would have served him better...  
  
Maybe Senju Tobirama, boogeyman of the ninja-world, demon-spawn hiding in human shape, icy snake just waiting for the moment to strike – was just as rattled by the whole situation as Madara was. As anybody would be, really. And maybe Tobirama involving Hashirama had been nothing so much as a little brother running flailing and screaming (for Tobirama anyway) for his older brother to take care of the utter mess he had just made.

Suddenly Madara was glad that the worst he ever had to take care of for Izuna had been broken pottery and burnt vegetable gardens. Tobirama's childhood accidents must have been... interesting.

"So... What's Hashirama's take on the whole situation?"

The white haired man at his side noticeably twitched.

"...There was whining involved. And whimpering. Some praying for patience, some pleading for common sense. Lots of desperation. Tears."

"So, the usual then."

Tobirama gave an actual grimace.

"Worse. Mito finally sent him to his room to calm down."

Madara couldn't help but smirk in schadenfreude and wince in sympathy at the same time.

"He will calm down again once he figures out what it means for the village."

Tobirama gave him a quick glance, eyes flickering with something that might actually be his version of intrigue, but refrained from asking the obvious question in his mind. A few blocks further Madara couldn't help but fill the silence once more:

"Are you going to resurrect anybody else?"

"No."

The answer was very swift and sounded surprisingly final. At an imploring glance Tobirama elaborated:

"Where would I draw the line? At anybody not from my clan? At anybody not from an allied clan? And what if somebody copied my jutsu and suddenly everybody was resurrecting their dead? We would be right back at war again, with all sides bringing their dead back to life after every battle only to start all over again. Peace would become impossible."

He shook his head, shaggy white hair flying.

"No. Izuna's resurrection will officially be a lucky fluke that I won't be able to repeat again, no matter how often I try."

That answer showed a surprising amount of sense, actually. Who knew that Senju Tobirama actually had some measure of common sense, even if it didn't always quite work as everybody else’s. Still...

"What about your brothers?"

Red eyes narrowed and showed actual sadness. That clinched it: In the light of the overwhelming evidence of Senju Tobirama's constant emoting he was now officially recognized as a human being and all of Madara's pet theories had once and for all gone down the drain.

"I miss them and always will. But they lived and died a long time ago and by now I've made my peace with it. Their deaths among so many others are part of what is giving Konoha and this peace meaning. I hope that they will understand my decision should I ever see them again."

Madara... could, surprisingly enough, accept that. He could still feel the pain of losing his own brothers earlier in the war, like a wound never quite healed but no longer constantly aching. Different from losing Izuna so close to an actual chance at peace after he had managed to keep him alive for far longer than he had ever thought possible. No hate for them, not anymore. But... acceptance, in a way. And determination: Never again.

Besides, if Tobirama raised his brothers, his "lucky fluke" excuse was pretty much useless.

They walked a bit further, Madara needing his companion's support less and less, when he couldn't help fill the silence with one last question.

"So, what's up with the hat."

Tobirama pursed his lips in a way that had become increasingly familiar to Madara over the evening, a sure sign that he didn't quite know how to formulate his reply in a way that wouldn't get his head ripped off. So Senju Tobirama was actually capable of caring about other people's feeling. Or at least of recognizing them and the danger they could mean to him. Madara was learning lots of things about the man he had never even suspected. If things continued at this rate, next he would discover that Tobirama had an actual sense of humor hidden away somewhere.

Finally Tobirama seemed to give up on finding a diplomatic approach and reverted to the familiar way of absolute bluntness.

"Apparently my brother is convinced that now that he can no longer in good conscience call himself the "God of Shinobi" he should pass on the position of Hokage to the new bearer of said title."

Madara snorted, half surprised at feeling acceptance instead of jealousy. Maybe he was simply too exhausted by everything to feel properly outraged at being slighted.

Then again, even he had to admit that being able to raise the dead was pretty hard to beat on a résumé, no matter his own combat prowess and admirable leadership skills.

“Give him a few days and he will stop pouting again. Especially if he learns that you’re not planning on running around and resurrecting people left and right.”

Tobirama gave a snort of his own.

“He will stop pouting the moment he notices that he’s now finally free of the paperwork, you mean.”

Suddenly Madara was feeling a lot more cheerful about being passed over by the succession. Paperwork was evil. And given that the white haired Senju at his side was responsible for introducing roughly seventy percent of it, the job couldn’t have happened to anybody more deserving.

“Have fun!”

he declared cheerfully, finally lifting his arm off of Tobirama’s shoulders when they stopped in front of the Senju clan head’s mansion. The other man shot him a withering glare.

Finally familiar territory.  
Then again, the night was just about to get weird again.  
Not that Madara was about to complain.

He couldn’t help wondering about one thing, though.

“Hey Tobirama! Why didn’t you jump us over with Hiraishin in the first place?”

Such an innocent question. And yet it firmly put his companion on the same step as the rest of the human species once and for all.

Because Senju Tobirama, boogeyman of the ninja-world, looked stunned for just about a second – and then promptly face-palmed.


End file.
